San Francisco Area

San Francisco CSA members at annual Spring meeting.

Live Power Offerings
Other Farm Offerings
Distribution
How to Join

LIVE POWER OFFERINGS

Live Power Community Farm grows Demeter-certified Biodynamic vegetables. It is a non-mechanized and solar energy farm that uses horses and human labor in the fields. Members' share cost for summer 2011 is $1,095. Costs are adjusted annually reflecting the farm's operating budget.

Seasonal Variation: The farmers will harvest what is ready at each season. Early spring baskets are usually smaller with mostly greens and early roots, then peas and broccoli, then increasing in quantity and variety with corn, squash, tomatoes, melons, potatoes, roots and greens as peak summer harvest is reached in August and September. Fall harvests are also bountiful with roots, storage crops, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, leeks and greens. The baskets will increase in quantity and variety as the weather warms and more types of vegetables are ripe. Below is a table showing what is typically in a vegetable share (but note that items may vary due to natural causes).

	Quantities
Vegetable	Season	Weekly	May	June	July	Aug	Sept	Oct	Nov
Arugula	8 bn.	1 bn.
Basil	8 lbs.	.50 lbs.
Beans	12 lbs.	1.0 lb.
Beets	15 lbs.	.75 lb.
Broccoli	18 lbs.	1.5 lbs.
Cabbage	7 ea.	1 ea.
Cabbage, Chinese	2 ea.	0.5 ea.
Carrots	30 lbs.	1 lbs.
Cauliflower	4 hd.	1 ea.
Chard, Swiss	6 lbs.	0.5 lb.
Corn	72 ea.	6 ea.
Cucumber	50 ct.	3 ea.
Eggplant	30 ct.	1.0 lb.
Garlic	24 bulbs	2 bulbs
Herbs, Assorted	10 bn.	1 bn.
Kale	9 bn.	1 bn.
Kholrabi	6 ea	2 ea.
Komatsuna	5 bn.	1 bn.
Kyona/Mizuna	12 sm. bn.	1 sm. bn.
Leeks	30 ea.	6 ea.
Lettuce	100 ea.	4 ea.
Melon, Cantaloupe	8 ea.	2 ea.
Melon, Honeydew etc.	7 ea.	1 ea.
Mustard	8 bn.	1 bn.
Onions	40 ea.	2 ea.
Orach	1 bn.	1 bn.
Pac choy, Baby	12 ea.	1 ea.
Parsley	12 sm. bn.	1 sm. bn.
Parsnips	2 lbs.	0.5 lb.
Peas, Snap	5 lbs.	0.5 lb.
Peas, Snow	4 lbs.	0.5 lb.
Pepper, Hot	32 ea.	4 ea.
Pepper, Sweet	40 ea.	3 ea.
Pie Pumpkin	2 ea.	1 ea.
Potatoes	50 lbs.	2.5 lbs.
Radishes	10 bn.	1 bn.
Rutabaga	6 lbs.	1 lbs.
Scallions	8 bn.	6 ea.
Shungiku	4 bn.	1 bn.
Spinach	18 lbs.	1 lb.
Squash, Summer	60 ct.	2-3 ct.
Squash, Winter	20 ct.	2 ct.
Tatsoi	10 bn.	1 bn.
Tomatoes	50 lbs.	3 lbs.
Tomatoes, Cherry	12 bsk.	2 bsk
Turnips	10 lbs.	1 lb.
Vitagreen	12 bn.	1 bn.
Watermelon	4 ea.	1 ea.

Splitting shares. The basket you receive each week is designed at the height of the season to provide vegetables for a family of four. During the first few weeks of the season, the baskets are smaller and the variety is based partly on what grows early in the season and partly on what the weather has allowed. About half of our members split their shares, and you may also want to split. If you decide to split a share, we recommend finding a share partner that is known to you: a friend, a neighbor, a relative, or a colleague at work, and working out the logistics with them. Occasionally, we have individuals on our waiting list who need a share partner.

OTHER FARM OFFERINGS

Fruit Share from Good Humus Produce. Good Humus will continues to provide us with Stellar-certified organic fruit for the whole season. The fruit share will also include fruit (peaches, pluots, apples, Asian pears, and possibly some cherries) from Filigreen Farm which uses biodynamic growing practices. The price is $476 which includes transportation. The fruit share remains optional, and people who split a vegetable share can choose to receive two fruit shares. For the 2011 summer season Good Humus is introducing reusable cloth bags, 6 per share, to replace the plastic bags for sorting the fruit. There is a one-time cost of $12 per share, included in total cost of share.

Flower Share from Good Humus Produce. Annie Main's beautiful, seasonal bouquets are available to members. Spring bouquets have sweet peas, larkspur, and some godetias and irises. Summer and fall include sunflowers, zinnias, cosmos, straw flowers, dahlias, and more. The price is $232 for the season which includes one bouquet each week.

Egg Share from Clark Summit Farm. Clark Summit, located on Tomales Bay, will provide shares of pastured eggs. A share is one dozen eggs per week for 27 weeks (May 14 – Nov 12) and will cost $203.

Chicken Share from Mendocino Organics. Adam Gaska is offering organic free-range chickens, delivered fresh (feet and giblets will be included with each share). One share is 5 chickens for $98. The 5 delivery dates are (1 chicken per delivery): June 18, July 16, August 13, September 10, and October 8. Members can order one or multiple chicken shares.

Brown Rice Shares from Massa Organics . Massa Organics is a local family farm that grows organically certified whole grain brown rice. We are offering either a small, 4 pound share at $8 or a large, 40 pound share at $60. There will be two deliveries during the season, one in May and one in November (a half share at each delivery).

Blueberry Share from Filigreen Farm. Biodynamic blueberries come from Filigreen in Boonville. The share consists of 6 baskets of 6 ounces each for 8 deliveries during June, July and August and costs $160. Members can order more than 1 share, or can consider splitting a share with a friend or neighbor. The delivery dates may shift due to ripening conditions, but we're confident that there will be 8 deliveries.

DISTRIBUTION

Members share in the work of the farm by sorting and delivering food. Rather than making individual portions, the farmers pack each week’s harvest for the group. Someone from the farm delivers the food to the sort location in the Presidio in northwest San Francisco each Friday night, where it is stored overnight in a cooler.

At the beginning of each season, after the CSA has been divided into clusters of 5 to 7 shares by geographic proximity, cluster members meet to work out the details for the season. Each week one member from each cluster meets Saturday morning at 8 a.m. to sort the items into baskets and then deliver them to their group. Each full-share member may have to sort and deliver 3 to 6 times during the season, depending on the size of the cluster and the length of the season. The other weeks’ deliveries are made to your door.

There are a few exceptions to this distribution plan. Because they are spread out, sometimes a cluster has a drop site where members pick up their shares. The East Bay is in Berkeley, and the Marin location is in Mill Valley.

If you are a new member, you will be assigned to a cluster, the group of families in your neighborhood. You will be contacted by your cluster leader, who will give you additional information about the CSA and the sorting schedule for the vegetables. Each new shareholder is asked to purchase two baskets, which will be used in the sorting and distribution process.

Sometimes a full share is too much and two households will split a share. Each cluster decides how to include split shares in the sort schedule.

Newsletters are published every week or two with news from the farm, recipes, and other items of interest.

HOW TO JOIN

If you are interested in joining, please complete an email request form. These are accepted at any time although membership is finalized April 1 for the summer season, which begins the first week of May, and December 1 for the winter season, which begins the first week of January. If there is not space in the CSA for the upcoming season, we will put you on the waiting list for the next season and will contact you at that time to verify your continued interest.

Existing and prospective members will be notified when the sign-up period is open, typically in mid-February for the summer season (29 weeks from May to November) and in mid-October for the winter season (17 weeks from January to April). This email will direct interested people to the online subscription and purchase process. This process includes signing a commitment form, which is an agreement to pay for a full season share and participate in sorting and distribution. Priority is given to returning members.

If you are interested in splitting a share and do not have a partner in mind, please indicate that in your email request form. Sometimes (but not always) we can match you with another household in your area.

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